Many companies would like to implement their own corporate style guide across all of their reports and dashboards, truly engaging their users. This can be a huge undertaking, especially when you have many existing reports and/or intend to create many more new reports.
What is the best way to approach this task? The traditional method is to modify each report one by one using the Properties pane in Report Studio.
This new Proven Practices document by Steve Macko -... [Continue Reading]

There's a new Proven Practices document that expands on Chapter 7 - Dimensional security of the IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes Redbook and shows some examples of how the various combinations of dimensional security filters can affect the view of data your users can see and the resulting aggregates created.
It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the basic concepts of Dynamic Cube modelling and has read the IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes Redbook.
The Proven Practices document uses the... [Continue Reading]

There may be scenarios, where based on user permissions, some users may be privileged to see more time periods than other users. Using filters in the metadata model to enforce user based security and various report authoring techniques, this two-part video series from the Proven Practices team shows how to dynamically default to the latest period a user is allowed to see based on their user ID.
The following techniques were tested on IBM Cognos BI 10.2.1.
Default to User-Based Latest Period - Part 1 – Framework Manager... [Continue Reading]

Improve your agile development lifecycle with SPSS
Learn how to build a lean analytics strategy by using IBM® SPSS®. Your project managers can optimize the development lifecycle, focusing attention where it needs to be. Doing so gives product teams the opportunity to make real-time decisions about feature implementation, and most importantly, management can make quick decisions on resource allocation.
... [Continue Reading]

Submitted by the Business Analytics Proven Practices Team
Yes, it is possible to optimize your Cognos 10.2 reports to run in either landscape or portrait orientation on a supported mobile device.
Before we get to the tip, here's what to watch out for when creating an Active Report -
Avoid setting percentage sizes greater than 100% as there could be unexpected results in browsers.
Avoid setting margins as this might cause unexpected shifting and items to appear outside their container. Use padding instead to... [Continue Reading]

This new Proven Practices document entitled - Scripting Basic IBM Cognos 10 Report Execution Using LoadRunner - is intended for individuals using LoadRunner to drive performance, scalability and stability tests for IBM Cognos 10. The topic covered is the action of executing simple reports in IBM Cognos Viewer.
In general, the concepts should be applicable to all IBM Cognos 10 production versions. The code examples will be specific to IBM Cognos 10 BI versions 10.1.1, 10.2 and 10.2.1. All script... [Continue Reading]

The IBM Business Analytics Proven Practices team has been busy over the summer preparing new documents. Here are two recent documents that will be of interest to Supportlink readers. Remember, you can follow @basupp on Twitter and be notified whenever a new Proven Practices document is published.
IBM Business Analytics Proven Practices: Case Study - Migrating BO Reports to IBM Cognos BI without Universe Files
This document provides a technical summary of how to migrate SAP Business Objects (BO)... [Continue Reading]

The following tip is taken from a new Proven Practices document entitled, IBM Cognos Insight - Installation and Configuration. The document covers server and client installations and configurations for IBM Cognos Insight and can be found here in its entirety .
You can configure IBM Cognos Insight to communicate with IBM Cognos BI, IBM Cognos TM1, IBM Cognos Express, and IBM Cognos Business Viewpoint.
The IBM Cognos BI configuration is used to share a workspace as a CDD file in Cognos Connection or to publish Cognos Insight... [Continue Reading]

This is a series of videos from the Proven Practices team that takes a ground-up approach to designing reports for performance.
Beginning with data access strategies and followed by metadata modeling tips, viewers will delve into various best practices for report design and learn how to ensure that reports are optimized for performance. Topics span various IBM Cognos Business Intelligence roles, including administrators, metadata modelers, and report authors.
Part 1 - Introduction and data acess strategies
Part 2 - Model... [Continue Reading]

Submitted by Thaker Prit and Mohit Rangwani of Cognizant Technology Solutions
This technique applies column freeze functionality similar to Microsoft Excel on Crosstab row headers using IBM Cognos BI Report Studio toolbox items and JavaScript.
The technique outlined in this document was validated using IBM Cognos BI 10.1.1 using the GO Data Warehouse (query) sample package.
Exclusions and Exceptions
The steps outlined in this document are applicable only in the HTML output version of the IBM Cognos Report Studio... [Continue Reading]

Submitted by Marc Reed, Consultant, IBM
Unbalanced hierarchies are often found within OLAP data sources. One of the most common examples is a Chart of Accounts dimension. These are dimensions where not all members drill to the same depth as each other.
There is often a need to show all the leaf members of such dimensions when creating dimensional reports. For example, creating a flat list of accounts for a trial balance.
This technique shows how to add all the leaf members from an unbalanced hierarchy to a report.
This technique... [Continue Reading]

The Proven Practice team has been busy for the past two months with new documents highlighting diagnostic tools that have been the subject of a few Supportlink articles in the past few months.
(Ed - Also see the handy new Cognos Diagnostic Usability Matrix to, "to help provide assistance in choosing an appropriate diagnostic utility that can help in overall resolution of an issue.")
They have also updated some of their most popular documents such as the Dynamic Query Cookbook.
New and updated... [Continue Reading]

In versions earlier than IBM Cognos 8.4, Transformer modelers accessed IBM Cognos BI content by either saving report outputs as comma separated values (CSV) files and using those CSV files as data sources in Transformer, or they could generate Impromptu Query Definition (IQD) files through Framework Manager.
In IBM Cognos 8.4 and higher, it is possible to use existing IBM Cognos BI packages and reports found in the IBM Cognos BI Content Store as a data source in IBM Cognos BI Transformer.
This additional feature has made building data... [Continue Reading]

This new Proven Practices document describes an approach to schedule a report which can be delivered to users on multiple, non-recurring dates using an IBM Cognos Event Studio agent. The technique was tested with IBM Cognos 10.1 and 10.1.1. This document assumes readers have experience with IBM Cognos BI, in particular IBM Cognos Report Studio and IBM Cognos Event Studio. Overview In many cases, report consumers need their reports automatically delivered by email. For recurring dates this can be done using IBM Cognos scheduling options, but... [Continue Reading]

Tags

A tag is a keyword you assign to make a blog or blog content easier to find. Click a tag to find content that has been assigned that keyword. Click another tag to refine the search further. Click Find a tag to search for a tag that is not displayed in the collection.